CSharp: Surreptitious standoff tagging and tracking system using passive nanotechnical transponders: A spiral research, development, test, engineering (RDTE) and production program

We report the development and successful testing at TRL-5 of a persistent (no-batteries) Surreptitious tagging and tracking system for vehicles, containers and personnel which can be applied and monitored at a distance, requiring no batteries in the target transponder. The system employs a metamaterial consisting of quantities of a novel nanotechnical device (size depending on frequency) in random configuration, with tunable electrodynamic and aerodynamic properties, the latter providing correct geometry and intermolecular (van der Waals) adherence of the transponders to a target. The transponder cluster appears as a smudge of dirt to the naked eye and acts to retroreflect a properly-tuned interrogating laser narrowly to its source, with a brightness measured to exceed a sheet of white paper (a perfect Lambertian reflector) by about 10 dB. Unique ID of the target is feasible using a “bar code” in the wavelength or frequency domain and a multi-wavelength interrogation. CSharp is considered ready for engineering and low-rate initial production (LRIP). Present and future applications include homeland security, intelligence and counterintelligence, counterterrorism and law enforcement, as well as defense. Other applications that have been studied but not tested include “smart chaff” with controlled peek-through and aerodynamic dispersion properties, and application to signaling clouds of frequency-selective obscurants.